Passage

Ruth 4.1

Book: Ruth · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down. 3. And he said unto the near kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's: (Ruth 4:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there. Behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by. He said to him, “Come over here, friend, and sit down!” He turned aside, and sat down.

He took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, “Sit down here,” and they sat down. 3. He said to the near kinsman, “Naomi, who has come back out of the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s. (Ruth 4:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down. 3. And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's: (Ruth 4:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. And Boaz hath gone up to the gate, and sitteth there, and lo, the redeemer is passing by of whom Boaz had spoken, and he saith, 'Turn aside, sit down here, such a one, such a one;' and he turneth aside and sitteth down.

And he taketh ten men of the elders of the city, and saith, 'Sit down here;' and they sit down. 3. And he saith to the redeemer, 'A portion of the field which [is] to our brother, to Elimelech, hath Naomi sold, who hath come back from the fields of Moab; (Ruth 4:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the narrator of Ruth, an anonymous storyteller; within the scene, Boaz speaks to the nearer kinsman
Audience: the readers of the book
Location: the gate of Beth-lehem, where legal business was done before the elders (Ruth 4:1-2)
Time period: "in the days when the judges judged" (Ruth 1:1); the closing genealogy reaches David (4:17-22)

Theological reading

"Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by." The gate was the place of public business, and Boaz at once gathers "ten men of the elders of the city" (4:2). What he promised Ruth privately at the threshing-floor (3:13) he now settles openly and lawfully.

"Near kinsman" is goel (Strong's H1350), the redeemer-kinsman. The law gave this relative the duty to recover family land: "then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold" (Leviticus 25:25). Boaz had told Ruth plainly that "there is a kinsman nearer than I" (3:12), and he respects that prior right rather than going around it.

The narrator leaves the man unnamed, and Boaz addresses him as "such a one." The man who declines to redeem, for fear "lest I mar mine own inheritance" (4:6), is not remembered by name, while the purpose of Boaz's act is "that the name of the dead be not cut off" (4:10).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H1350 - goel, goel, Strong's H1350

Quoted in

Lexicon:

G0629 - apolytrosis, via Ruth 4.1-12
H1350 - goel, via Ruth 4.1-12

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.